Jimi Hendrix's guitar fetches 250k pounds at auction

Jimi Hendrix's favourite electric guitar, which he tricked his fans into thinking that he had set fire to it on stage at a famous concert, has been sold for almost 250,000 pounds.

The legendary guitarist switched it for a lesser model seconds before dousing it in lighter fluid as a stunt to mark the end of his set at the Monterey International Pop Festival in 1967, the Daily Mail reported.

Music memorabilia fans lined up to bid on the black Fender Stratocaster at the Playboy Club in Park Lane, London last night when the iconic lot went under the hammer.

The guitar was later given to his record company Anim Limited, where it fell into the hands of James ‘Tappy’ Wright, a manager at the firm. Wright, 69, from Newcastle, decided to sell it to help fund his retirement in Florida.

It had been given a pre-sale estimate of 120,000 pounds but the sheer amount of interest in it led to the sale price to rocket. It sold at auction for 205,000 pounds, but with all the fees added on the overall price paid for it was 237,000 pounds.